5 Ways to Keep Your Resume Unreadable

You have the education. You have the experience. You are ready to go after that job with the best version of your resume. You have a flawless cover letter and send off your resume for your dream job.

On the other end of that email, the hiring manager, impressed by your cover letter, goes to check out your resume. Maybe it’s the layout, or the fact that it went through an online system first, but your resume is unreadable and they put your application in the “Reject” file.

Here’s what you might have done wrong:

1) You uploaded the PDF version of your resume to an online system. This makes it harder for the system to recognize the words in your resume. Using a word document will make it easier for the system to recognize the correct information to fill out the fields.

2) You used different colors for your font. Unless you’re creating a unique resume for a position in a creative industry, there is no reason for your font to be anything but black on your resume. Hurting your potential employer’s eyes won’t get you far in the hiring process.

3) You used paragraphs instead of bullet points.Avoid clutter on your resume to make it easier to read. It will make it easier to find necessary information and highlight your accomplishments.

4) You bolded and italicized every other line. Let your accomplishments speak for themselves, versus bolding the to draw attention to them. Be consistent in your formatting.

5) You have a lot of typos. Use spell check and have someone else (or even a third person) proofread your resume for you before you let it out of your sight and into a hiring manager’s inbox. Think about it: would you hire someone who misspelled “attention to detail” on their resume?